


A Killer Bouquet

by Piff



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom
Genre: Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Gen, Hanahaki Disease, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Possibly Unrequited Love, Unrequited Love, Vomiting blood and rose petals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:48:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28681362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piff/pseuds/Piff
Summary: Hanahaki Disease - when an unrequited love forces someone to literally choke on their emotions, flowers blooming in their lungs until the love is returned or death.Jeffrey Woods - the most emotionally repressed being ever.His friends deal with the fallout.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 15





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_Hanahaki Disease - an illness born from unrequited love. The patient’s lungs will begin to fill up with flowers until they are forced to cough them out or suffocate. It starts with a few petals at a time, and if left long enough, it eventually advances to vomiting up whole flowers and blood. To stop the disease, the person the patient is in love with needs to return the feelings of affection, or at least convince the patient they feel the same._

_The flowers can be removed through surgery, but as the flowers are cut out so are all feelings for the person in question, never to come back. If neither option is done in time then the patient’s lungs will fill up with the flowers and thorns, and they will eventually suffocate or bleed to death._

\--

When word got out, it left some people speechless with disbelief. Because if there was anything that the Killer would and could do, it was to pretend he had no emotional ties to anyone but himself- and people believed him. Right up until he started coughing in the middle of an argument with Eyeless about what did and didn’t count as ‘fast food’ for cannibals.

The first time he coughed, Jeff wiped the back of his hand against his lips with a glance towards the door, and surreptitiously slid his hand into his hoody pocket before continuing. 

He coughed again a few seconds later, but waved off Eyeless Jack’s concern, making the teenager sigh.

“Fine. But if you’re not going to be helpful, get out and let me finish packing.”

Sneering back, Jeff straightened up from his lean against the wall and made for the door. But halfway there he started to cough again. And this time it didn’t stop until he was bent over at the waist, gagging into his hands as rose petals and blood poured out of his mouth, covering the floor around his feet in a pool of bright red.

It was a very dramatic way to end the night.


	2. Masky

“You always did like holding things close to your chest.”

Masky dropped to the floor to sit with his back against the wall, next to the bed of a sleeping bag and blankets. He pulled off his mask and rubbed his face then scruffed his hair where it had gotten matted down by the straps. 

“I gotta admit, when we first heard about it, I thought it was pretty funny,” he started off conversationally. “Jeff the Killer- in love! The Grinch himself vomiting rose petals and all to prove it. It took a few days to sink in that… this isn’t all that funny, is it? So I uhh.. I wanted to apologize. For everything I said the other night.”

He could hear the thickness of Jeff’s breathing, a wet rasp as if his lungs were full of fluid. Which they were, obviously. Jeff was drowning in his own blood and affection for someone he refused to name. Got downright snappy about it in fact..

“We both thought it had to be Eyeless’ fault of course. I mean, you guys have been traveling together for over a year now, and you two seem to just.. click somehow. He has to be putting up with you for a reason, right? Why _not_ love?”

There was a snort from the sleeping bag. The Killer was curled up in a small ball which left Masky unable to see Jeff’s face, but the sound made him chuckle.

“Yeah, Eyeless told us we were thinking too narrowly. So then Hoody asks- well, what about Liu? True love between siblings is all the rage these days if you go by Disney.”

The huddled form went still. Very, very still and the raspy breathing stopped for a moment, then another. Just when Masky was sure Jeff had died right then and there, Jeff abruptly jerked himself upright to cough a flurry of petals into the air. Masky had a few seconds to grab a bowl and shove it into Jeff’s hands, before the petals turned soggy and bright red with blood. 

There was a lot of blood.

Jeff had had a cough ever since Hoody and Masky had run into him and Eyeless Jack, but it had seemed so slight. It was winter, getting the sniffles was just about guaranteed for people who stuck to places out in the middle of nowhere. The plan had been to part ways in the morning after some general catching up on things, share the rumors of people being sighted here or there, signs of the Slender Man, chat about how Masky had given BEN a lift across the state line, before leaving the Gameboy in a Lost and Found bin at a playground. 

The four of them had pooled together supplies for a celebratory dinner and played a few rounds of cards, before packing up for the morning. 

The clean up had been minimal right up until Jeff had puked a puddle of flowers and blood all over the shack floor. Not the few petals of a beginning crush, not the handful of a long-term pining, this had been a torrent of heavily suppressed feelings that had built up over a course of _months_. 

Masky was still annoyed by how Eyeless had put himself between Jeff and the masked killers as if expecting them to… what? Attack? Eyeless had apologized afterwards, but still.

“Hey, Hoody wants you to know that you can just say the word, and he’ll go out and shank the bastard you’re pining over. Or try to. No promises on if it’s Laughing Jack, that guy is creepy as fuck and would prob’ly take Hoody’s head home for a balloon if he failed the attempt.”

He’d meant for his comment to be funny, Jeff loved dark humor, but the Killer didn’t seem to be in the mood to laugh. He started to lilt to the side, wiping at his mouth with one last gagging cough, and Masky quietly took the bowl from his lap so Jeff could curl back up under the blanket.

A few seconds later, in a wet, choking tone that had Masky swallowing in sympathy, Jeff demanded- “ _why_ are you still _here_?”

“Because we’re friends. And friends don’t leave friends to die alone in a pool of their own emotions.”

Masky plucked a few leftover petals from the blanket, dropping them one by one into the bowl. He rubbed one of the velvety pieces between his fingers, a pale yellow for friendship. Earlier there had been pink, and Masky would swear he’d even seen white and orange pop up. 

But no red, other than the petals covered in blood from the thorns ripping up Jeff’s lungs and throat, which Masky found a little odd.

“I spent half the night wondering what I’d do if you said it was me. That I was the reason you were… like this.”

“ _As if_ ,” Jeff muttered. Masky didn’t miss the weary, wary, expression around his eyes before Jeff rolled over, putting his back towards Masky. 

“I know. Eyeless would have me by the balls if he thought that was a possibility. He’d certainly not have let me come talk with you if he thought I’d make it worse, even on accident. But he trusts me, and you want to know why?”

Jeff muttered something, probably sarcastic, but Masky talked right over him without pausing.

“Because I never ask you where Toby is, and I _know_ you know. When I find him, and I _will_ track him down eventually, then I’ll find the Slender Man- but I would never put you in the position where you’d have to choose between me and Toby. Because I value our friendship too much to destroy it like that.”

This time there was no response from the balled-up form under the blanket and Masky hadn’t expected any. Because he understood, really he did. People like them, always on the move, hunting and being hunted, never really sure where you were going to be sleeping that night or if you were going to eat... It was hard to live like they did. Finding people you could tolerate, that you could _trust_ , was rare enough. 

Finding someone to love, and have them love you in return?

The odds were never in their favor.


	3. Hoody

“No, there is no _just in case_ , because we’re _not staying_!”

Watching Eyeless and Jeff argue was uncomfortable. Hoody, not willing to cross the floor and get between them, found himself standing awkwardly in a corner and listening.

“Yes, we are. It’s not late enough in the year for a lot of snow, but we’ll need wood that’s not wet. Getting it now means it’ll be usable in the morning.”

Jeff being upright should have been a good thing, but Eyeless had taken one ‘look’ at Jeff, cocked his head to the side, and told the Killer to go back to bed before he punctured a lung. And Eyeless didn’t even try to face Jeff to argue the point, merely turned away to drop an armful of wood next to the fireplace. 

Hoody would have squared off, gotten up in the Killer’s face about it, but Eyeless worked on a whole different level and it left Hoody feeling like he was watching one of his school-friends get scolded by ‘Dad’ while he pretended not to be there.

“Preparing for _any_ snow means it’s time to leave!” Jeff insisted. His lips looked dark and wet, and Hoody shifted uneasily. Both psychos had a point to things. Jeff could barely walk across the room without wheezing, but if they got snowed in here, in a shack barely holding it together out in the middle of no-where, no people, no supplies, then-

“You’re all dead meat if you stay here!” Trust Jeff to be blunt about it.

“Like you?” Eyeless said mildly. He was stacking the wood neatly now, as if he couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the conversation. 

“I’m.. _You’re not staying_!”

“I really don’t see how that’s your decision.”

“ _Eyeless_!”

“Tell you what,” Eyeless brushed the dirt and bark from his hands and stood up. Only now did he turn to face the Killer, blue mask as emotionless as his voice. “If you can bend down and touch your toes without coughing, I’ll pack. Right now. We’ll be out of here within the hour and heading towards town.”

Jeff hesitated, and Hoody thought that maybe now he’d back down and maybe even go lay down for a lil longer, but.. uhh… yeah. No. Jeff cautiously started to bend over, stopping with his hands around his knees, and then jerking downwards to place his hands not on his feet, but palms flat on the floor. Taking those extra few inches to say ‘fuck you’. 

Getting himself upright, Jeff glared at Eyeless Jack with his chin jutted forward. 

Eyeless stared back, feet planted on the worn floorboards and arms crossed over his chest. 

Hoody looked from one to the other but didn’t dare offer his opinion yet. And after a few moments when Jeff’s mouth twitched and jerked but didn’t cough…

“Alright. I’ll get our things together. And when we have to stop halfway to town because you’ve collapsed from being unable to breath, out in the open with the winter chill, we can freeze to death just to appease your need to be stubborn. Sound good?”

“ . . . . “

After the pathetic excuse for a door slammed shut on the closet of a bedroom, Hoody coughed lightly to get Eyeless attention. He almost raised a hand like he was back in class too but that would have been useless. “Don’t you think you’re being a little hard on him? I’m worried about the weather too, if it snows more than a couple inches..”

“Pushing himself now will only make it harder for all of us. I need him, and you, to trust me on this, because if we leave now he won’t make it even to the halfway point before he bleeds out on the snow. And while that might make for a pretty picture _in theory_ , I’d rather not have it happen in real life if I can avoid it.”

“Ah.”

“He’s not going to want to talk to me for a while, will you take him some coffee? I want to keep him warm as much as possible.”

“...sure.”

The coffee was bitter, but it was hot, and Hoody pulled his sleeves down over his hands to protect them from the overheated cup. Metal was sturdy, but it conducted heat like no tomorrow. Away from the fireplace it was a lot colder but even when he wasn’t sick Jeff preferred to curl up under a blanket than be too close to the burning wood. It wasn’t the smell, Hoody knew, it was the flickering of the flames that made Jeff spook.

“Hey, brought you something to drink. I don’t have a straw so you’ll have to sit up.”

“I’m not an invalid,” Jeff growled at him. Not very effectively with his face hidden under his arms but Hoody just nodded. 

“ ‘course you aren’t. Might be dying a little, but you’re not sick at all! ...do you want the coffee or not? And don’t say you don’t want it because I’m offering, it’s a cup of coffee not my-” Hoody stopped. He’d been about to say ‘heart’ but that felt a little too dark for the situation. “...soul.”

“I’d take your soul,” Jeff muttered. 

“Well I ain't offering it. So take the damn coffee.”

Jeff sighed, but Hoody waited while he got himself up and leaned back against the rough wall of the room. When he was settled, Hoody held out the cup, warning- “It’s hot. Pull your sleeves down.” And then at Jeff’s rolling eyes, “hey, you want third degree burns on your hands? I know you’ve got thick skin, but come on.”

“Stop being nice to me because you think I’m fucking dying.”

“You mean you aren’t? Gimme my cup back.”

There was a flash of teeth as Jeff grinned at him, but only a flash and then he was glaring at Hoody once more. “You’re an asshole.”

“Takes one to know one,” cheerfully. “But seriously, lay low for a bit so we can hitch out of here on the double. I do not want to get snowed in here, it’ll be like a micro version of the shining. And have you smelled Masky’s socks? I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

“You can leave any time.”

“Yup.”

It wasn’t all that comfortable to sit on the bare floor, so after some thinking, Hoody stepped over Jeff’s legs to the other side and sat down on the spare bit of blanket. Much better. And no, he absolutely was not going to say anything more on that matter because Jeff was right, Hoody could leave at any time. He wasn’t going to, but he could.

Jeff cracked first. “Why are _you_ still here?”

“Because I feel like it. Because you’re an idiot. Because… hmm.. What did Masky say? ‘Because friends don’t let friends die by themselves’ ? I can’t think of anything more horrifying, by the way, than being slowly smothered and stabbed to death with no one else knowing. Makes my skin crawl thinking about it, it’s not happening on my watch.”

Jeff snorted. Then muffled a cough into his elbow, tinting the fabric pink with a fine spray of red droplets and yellow petals.

“...I never thanked you.”

“Oh god, we’re at that point now?”

“Shut up. I never thanked you for that time in Texas. That big guy with the chainsaw and wacko family, they were going to eat us alive. And I mean that literally. One moment we were getting our asses kicked by a guy in an apron, and next thing I know you’re there screaming at them for acting like a bunch of hillbillies and that you vouched for me and Masky.”

“They _are_ a bunch of hillbillies.”

“Still. Thank you for not letting them serve us for dinner.”

“It wasn’t hard once they got a look at your scrawny ass.”

“I’ll have you know that my ass is perfectly fine, unlike your boney butt.”

Another flash of teeth and Hoody felt himself slowly relax. Jeff would be fine. He had to be. Hoody couldn’t imagine not running into him every few months, like a bad penny.


	4. Eyeless Jack

Eyeless Jack had no personal experience with Hanahaki, nor had he ever considered it a high priority to look into it. Why would he? He didn’t know how cancer worked either, and that was more commonly dealt with than the painful flower disease. 

“Inhale.”

That popular media always exaggerated or romanticized illnesses or death didn’t help, because it left Eyeless trying to figure out how much was truth and how much was fiction when everything was played up for the drama or sweetness of love.

“Again.”

Jeff’s case seemed to ebb and flow and not always according to his moods surprisingly. It’d begin as a light cough at first, a few petals here and there, before suddenly erupting into a flood of blood and petals that left Jeff gasping for air. So far, Eyeless had been able to convince him to stay quiet and still for a few days until the worst was over and the healing could begin. A day or two of rest, and Jeff was for the most part breathing easily for a good couple of days. Maybe even a week.

Then he’d start coughing all over again.

And Eyeless had no idea if that was normal or not.

“So?” Jeff demanded. 

“One more. Inhale.”

Hand against Jeff’s ribs, he listened carefully to Jeff’s slow intake and release and felt for the light crackling that meant there was still an obstruction in the delicate membranes. 

There’d been hesitation the first time, as if Jeff expected it to hurt. The second breath had been deeper, but not as much as Eyeless would have liked. The third time was when he’d know for sure, because if Jeff was feeling the sharp prick of thorns then he’d take another shallow inhale, but if he was feeling better he’d suck in air all the way down to his diaphragm in relief.

“Ok. Good.”

Removing his hand from Jeff’s chest and letting him adjust his clothes, Eyeless tilted his head and continued listening to the movements for any hesitating, any awkward fumbling, anything at all that would hint at other problems. 

The unnatural pace at which Jeff healed had caused issues in the past. From needing to re-break his ribs so they would align properly, to cutting open a wound that had healed on the outside but not on the inside, which was always a mess. The trapped clots could be huge. So Eyeless really, really _did not_ want to have to deal with Jeff’s lungs healing too fast, and becoming a mass of hardened scar tissue. 

That’s what he dreaded the most out of all of this. 

Not the blood loss, because the human body held roughly a gallon of the stuff and Jeff coughed up maybe half a cup if one gathered all the petals. It always looked worse than it was because that was the nature of a liquid. 

The choking and reduced lung capacity was worrisome, but a strong heimlich maneuver could dislodge a handful of soggy petals long enough for Jeff to get a breath in. Not clear the lungs completely, but enough. And as long as Jeff didn’t go do a marathon, he should be fine.

No, it was the potential of Jeff’s lungs turning into a solid mass because of his own healing ability that worried Eyeless. 

“I can see the smoke coming out of your ears, Eyes. Are the guys outside?” Long sleeved shirt, t-shirt, hooded jacket, scarf.. It was cold but it wasn’t that bad yet. No snow other than a light dusting. He was going to be so grateful when they got south enough to not have to keep a nervous eye on the skies.

Eyeless nodded, tapping a finger against the cheek of his mask. “Masky caught a couple rabbits, and they didn’t want to saturate the cabin with the smell of burnt meat if we had to stay another night.”

“Fuck that. We’re leaving. Today.” 

“The air is clear, we really don’t have to leave so soon,” Eyeless pointed out mildly. Now that Jeff was up though, he busied himself with folding the blankets, rolling them up into tight tubes so that they could be fastened to the backpacks.

“Yes we fucking do. You’ve not eaten since we left the last town, and it’s been… a week? Over a week?”

Ah… Taking stock of how his body felt, Eyeless tilted his head in acknowledgement. “I’ve got a few days before it’s a problem.”

“We. Are. _Leaving_.”

“Sure, right after lunch.”

Eyeless didn’t miss the ‘ _we_ ’ being used rather than the ‘ _you_ ’, and that felt like progress. Still.. 

Backpacks buckled and ready to be grabbed, Eyeless snagged Jeff’s arm as he tried to leave the small bedroom. He didn’t miss the tension in the muscles under his grip nor how Jeff didn’t turn towards him like he usually did when they talked about serious matters.

“You don’t like listening to sincerity, but I need you to understand something- I’m here for you just as much as you’re here for me. I’d still be in Chicago only surviving, not living, if you hadn’t dragged me out of my comfort zone. You keep me from focusing on the minutia, I make sure you pay attention.”

“ _I swear to fucking god_ …” Jeff jerked the hood up over his head. “if I get one more heart-felt confession from someone because they found out I’m dying, I’m going to cut my throat and be done with it all.”

“You’re not dying.”

“Then why is everyone telling me they're glad I’m here, thanking me for something that happened ages ago, when _none of that fucking matters_. I’m an asshole, always have been and always will be, so why is everyone suddenly acting so… so…”

“Acting like they care?” Eyeless tightened his grip as Jeff tried to pull away, and he pulled the killer around. Whether Eyeless could see him or not, Jeff would feel the importance of being ‘eye to eye’- which is why Jeff had avoided it in the first place. “For someone who’s been trying to drag his broken body into the cold to make sure I get something to eat, you’re being pretty damn hypocritical.”

Jeff scoffed, shaking his head to make his hair fall down into his face. “Because if you don’t eat, you go nuts, and I want to keep my kidneys. Don’t look into it too hard.”

“...right.” Eyeless released him with a small sigh, feeling it bounce off the inside the mask. He grabbed a backpack. “Eat first, then we’ll head out.”


	5. Masky

Masky wanted to hit something. Fist braced against the hard wall of the abandoned villa, he tried to bottle up the trembling rage and keep it where it wouldn’t do any harm to himself, or others. 

He felt lied to. 

Not by anything _said_ , and not anything done on _purpose_ , for Eyeless was a stickler for truth and he’d never intended to hide anything about Jeff’s sickness from either hunter. That didn’t lessen the feeling of betrayal though, only made it worse as it proved how nonsensical his anger was.

Eyeless made for a terribly convenient target either way. 

He didn’t argue, he rarely raised his voice, he stated his facts and dealt with catastrophes as they came with a cool acceptance. And that was part of the problem. The calmness in how he dealt with Jeff’s illness, the way he was usually able to head things off before it got too extreme, he’d made it look so easy. So manageable. It had lulled Masky, and Hoody no doubt, into a false sense of security and having that ripped away so drastically had been… traumatic. 

Much as Masky hated to realize it, Jeff’s nearly constant coughing had become normal. The occasional heaving that splattered flowers and blood everywhere was dealt with by getting a bucket into his hands and later hitting up a laundromat. A long nap and rest later… and Jeff was fine. Using the time to re-gather supplies or freshen up what they had, it was a routine easily adjusted to as Eyeless directed them ever more south. Masky wouldn’t have called it _relaxing_ , but it was easier to deal with then the _go go go_ speed he and Hoody usually employed.

But as the old saying went, familiarity bred contempt.

And Masky had stopped paying attention.

“I never, ever, want to do that again,” Hoody thumped his back against the wall a few inches from Masky’s fist where it still pressed into the aged plaster. “It’s enough to make a guy swear off sobriety for good.”

Masky closed his eyes. 

There in his mind, he saw Eyeless kneeling with one knee on Jeff’s stomach to pin him down, and hand on the Killer’s forehead to hold it still. “Jeff, listen to me. Stop fighting it. I need you to calm down and focus on me and _stop moving_.”

Masky didn’t understand why Eyeless was wasting time talking when Jeff’s face was starting to turn blue. The Killer’s eyes rolled wildly until they latched onto Masky, the panic in his eyes making Masky feel pinned to the wall as he held the teenager’s gaze. Masky almost wished he was still wearing his mask, because the panic on his own face couldn’t have been reassuring as Jeff tried to breathe around whatever was jammed into his throat.

“ _Do something_!”

“I am doing something. But I need him to be still. Hoody, grab his hands- if he flails I might cut through something important.”

“Cut through _what_?” Hoody obediently dropped down next to them, trying to grab Jeff’s hands from where they had grabbed onto the front of Eyeless’ coat. “Eye- shit!”

Eyeless used the scalpel in his other hand, one none of them had seen him palm, and he stabbed it into the base of Jeff’s throat. He dragged it to the side to make the cut wider but took care not to nick the Jugular. Hoody watched in horror as once that had been done, Eyeless stuck a finger into the gash and wiggled it around. 

A few seconds later and he hauled out what looked like a slimy wad of knotted cords easily six inches long.

Blood sprayed from the wound as Jeff coughed, air whistling through his neck as air suddenly flowed freely. Ish.

“What the ever loving _fuck_.”

Using his fingers to plug the hole back up, Eyeless ignored the horrified whisper to lean over Jeff with ear inches from his chest. “Breath slowly, in… hold… out…” He coached as Jeff the Killer gasped in quick, shallow breaths. “Come on Jeff, you know how to do this.”

Swallowing painfully, Jeff coughed up another splatter of blood and struggled to slow his breathing as Eyeless counted it out for him. 4 in.. 7 hold.. 8 out.. The blue tinge to Jeff’s lips and cheeks started to fade and turn a healthier red even as the gurgling sound made Masky’s stomach twist. 

He was only able to watch as the two got Jeff sitting upright, even with Eyeless keeping his hand clamped onto Jeff’s throat. Getting Jeff to his feet was a different matter, Hoody had to wrap an arm around his waist to brace him before Jeff planted face first into the ground, but the pair of them got the Killer over to the sleeping bags and tried to make him comfortable.

Though how comfortable one could be..

“You uh.. going to stay like that..?”

“For a moment, yes. I’m just making sure the trachea closes before I let the rest of it heal up. I don’t want him breathing in any more blood than he already has.”

Hoody made an unhappy sound, staring at Eyeless’ hand where his fingers pressed into the cut.

Masky finally moved away from the wall. He swallowed heavily and tried not to gag while looking at the wad of string Eyeless had pulled out of Jeff’s throat. No, not strings. Stems. With bulbous ends that were flower heads with all the petals ripped off. Coughed out.

“They were growing up into his throat,” he finally said.

“I thought it might happen eventually,” Eyeless murmured. He moved Jeff’s head so that it was laying on his lap, brushing the Killer’s hair out of his face. Jeff looked pretty out of it now, eyes unfocused and slightly glazed over. “His coughs were getting raspier.”

“And you didn’t think to _warn us_?”

Eyeless looked over in his direction, and Masky could all but see the confusion as Eyeless said slowly- 

“Warn you.. about what? You knew he was like this when you decided to come along. Did you think that had changed at some point? He’s being slowly smothered by the flowers growing in his lungs, and without cutting straight into his chest to remove them, the best I can do is get them as they travel up his windpipe.”

Masky thought he’d known. It wasn’t like Jeff was vomiting blood because he was healthy, but.. The full reality of the situation hit Masky like a sucker punch to the gut. This wasn’t some pretty little drama where the main character puffed out a few petals and gracefully fell to the ground, only to be rescued at the last second by their love tearfully confessing their devotion.

Jeff was not okay. 

“Do you think it’d be less awful, if we heard about all this afterwards? When it was done and over with?”

Masky opened his eyes at Hoody’s question, and looked at him. “ _What_?”

“This.. watching it all go down… I’m just wondering how I’d feel if we’d gone out to the coast like we planned, and we came back later to find out Smiley died of some mysterious cause. Would I feel better, or worse, not being there to lend a hand or shoulder.”

“Brian.”

“Yeah?”

“ _Shut the fuck up._ ”


	6. Hoody

The wannabe Mugger wasn’t even holding the too-small knife properly, Hoody scoffed. How non-threatening could a thief be? The crack-head smelled like an outhouse and looked like he lived in one too.

“Gimme yer money!”

“How’about I give you three seconds to get the hell out of my face?” Hoody offered instead. Guarding the entrance of an alleyway had likely made him look suspicious to the local trash, but still- this guy looked like a single punch would lay him out flat. There was no need to pull out a weapon or do anything ex-

That. There was no need for _that_. 

Hoody hadn’t seen Jeff get up, but a hand appeared over the crack-heads mouth and 8 inches of sharpened steel sank into the man’s side like butter. Jeff ripped the knife out through the front of the belly to spill blood and intestines all over the ground at the man’s feet. Only holding the crack-head up until he was sure the man was past screaming, Jeff let him drop to the filthy cement with a surprisingly light thud. 

Crack-heads didn’t weigh a whole lot, good to know.

“There _are_ ways of dealing with people that don’t involve a blood bath and rabies,” Hoody complained to Jeff’s sneer. A chest-rattling cough later and Hoody grabbed for him before Jeff could trip over the dead man and pushed him back against the wall of the building. Hoody ignored the flurry of yellow petals between them best he could. 

“Sit the hell down before you fall over. Jeez, it’s like you don’t trust me to take care of things...”

Once Jeff was safely on the ground and not wavering in the wind like a paper doll, Hoody bent down over the body and grabbed the feet to drag it deeper into the alley. The dumpster was only half full, but lifting the guy up and over into the bin was going to get blood and bits everywhere.. Ew. Nope.

And he was not going to let Jeff help, can’t you see how pale the Killer was? Hear him gasping for air? That single moment of swift action was going to cost Jeff a lot, but hopefully he’d not pass out this time. Or.. _you know_. So yeah, Mr. Corpsey could hang out behind the dumpster and out of sight until another pair of hands arrived to deal with things.

“Did he bite you? If he bit you Eyeless is going to bite me and no one is going to like that.” Nothing he could do about the blood on the ground, just scatter someone’s junkmail over it. Ohey, Target was having a sale on camping lanterns, he should save that one.

Folded and stuffed into a pocket, Hoody turned back to check on Jeff who was sitting on the ground leaned up against the side of the building like he'd never gotten up in the first place. Not even to kill some poor drug-addict looking for his next fix money, oh no not Jeff. 

“Lemme see.”

Another roll of the eyes but with slow and exaggerated movements, Jeff raised the hand that had covered the crack-head’s mouth to prove he’d not been bitten. Not even a scratch. The only blood on him was where the crack-head had sprayed his arm from the initial stabbing and gutting.

“Cool, cool. They should be back soon, maybe Masky will bring back burgers,” Hoody ended on a hopeful note, scanning outside the alley once more. 

No comment from Jeff, but then he hadn’t said a word since Eyeless had torn open his throat to do some weeding. Eyeless said he didn’t _think_ he’d done that much damage, but it was a little hard to tell. Maybe he had, maybe he hadn’t, but Jeff was still breathing and making cranky faces, so.. yay?

As a consolation prize, now even Hoody and Masky could tell when Jeff needed to sit down for a bit by how fucking blue his lips were. Which was waaaay too often lately. 

Hoody leaned against the wall next to the Killer, tapping his hip with a foot till Jeff glared up at him. “Should we try to save some for Eyeless?”

Jeff snorted. He mimed shooting himself in the arm and shook his head. 

“Ah, right. Probly have the withered kidneys of an old granny with all that shit they use anyways.”

A shrug. Jeff crossed his arms over his knees and rested his head on them. Getting down to Florida had been a hassle and a half, but Hoody thought Jeff was looking slightly less miserable now that it wasn’t so cold they had to melt ice just to make a cup of coffee. Eyeless was a stone hearted bastard, but he’d been right about this. For now.

Listening to Jeff cough a few more times, Hoody had to wonder just how good the salty sea air could feel inside lungs being torn up on the inside. 

“Still think we should have gone to Texas. It’s just as warm there as here, but we’d not have to deal with random gators trying to mug us.” Or snakes. Hoody had heard about the snakes. Supersized and super hungry, they were taking over the everglades and could eat small children. The internet said so and Hoody would never call BEN a liar. 

Hoody shifted his foot so that it was against Jeff’s hip rather than just nudging at him. No shivering, that was a good sign. Shivering made Jeff’s lungs act up more and he’d start dribbling blood from the corners of his mouth after too long. 

“Well… too many gun-happy rednecks in Texas, I guess. Florida is fine. Maybe you’ll get a tan.”

A soft shuffle of footsteps had Hoody squinting around the corner, but seeing that it was only Masky and Eyeless finally on their way back, he relaxed. “ ‘bout damn time, could you have taken any longer?”

“Yes.”

When Eyeless didn’t continue, Masky shot him an irritated look and added- “we found something not too far from here, and once we get things moved I want to take all the phones to a cafe that’s still open. Get everything charged while we can.”

“Awesome. It’s been weird without the Telemarketers calling just as I’m about to fall asleep. Wonder if they miss me. Hand?” Hoody offered one down to the Killer who looked like he was debating sitting there for a while. It was a sign of how bad he felt when Jeff took the offer and let Hoody help him up off the ground rather than smacking the hand away to do it himself. 

Only letting go once he was sure the Killer was steady on his feet, Hoody jerked a thumb over his shoulder for the other two. “Dead guy back there, nothing special. Just dead.”

Masky now gave him an irritated glance, and even though he couldn’t see Eyeless expression, Hoody guessed that he was also irritated by the way the blue mask swung over in his direction. 

“Oi, don’t blame me! Blame him! It’s his fault!” 

Catching Jeff’s smirk, Hoody had to acknowledge that when having to choose between the healthy guy slinging a dufflebag over his shoulder, and the sickly guy barely able to breathe, yeaaaah he knew who was losing this competition. “You all suck. I just need you to know this.”

“Just grab the bags Einstein, and be quiet,” Masky sighed. He touched Jeff’s elbow as if asking a question and when Jeff didn’t argue, he took a firmer grip and gently pulled the Killer out onto the sidewalk. Hoody did not miss how Eyeless turned his head to watch them leave.

“So uh… found a place huh? Anything good about it?”

Picking up the last bag, Eyeless shrugged. “It appears stable and doesn’t smell like black mold.”

“Right. Okay then.”

“How does he look?”

Hoody didn’t have to ask who. “Pale. Tired. Could use some time with a washcloth, the druggie splattered on him a bit. I think if he got some rest and some food in him, he’ll be perky in no time.”

Was it a good sign or a bad sign that Eyeless walked off after that? He never agreed or disagreed with Hoody’s comments and if Hoody hadn’t seen all that Eyeless did to try and keep the Killer, _his best friend_ , alive he’d almost assume the guy didn’t give a flying fuck. 

Carefully relaxing his jaw, Hoody continued- “Though now that the two of you have settled in to wait for Jeff to kick the bucket, maybe we should just go ahead and leave.”

Still nothing.

“His kidneys should be in pretty interesting condition,” Hoody added sarcastically. 

That got a reaction, a little one, as Eyeless paused to look at him silently. There was a stillness to Eyeless that creeped Hoody out, because nothing alive should be able to hold themselves like a stone statue. Eyeless didn’t even seem to be breathing as he stared at Hoody.

“Just sayin’. Might taste like roses.”

“Improbable.”

“I guess you’ll find out soon, eh?”

Hoody needed to get a better grip on his surroundings, because again he never even saw the guy move. One moment Eyeless was a few feet away and the next moment Hoody had ringing ears and an aching head. Staring up at Eyeless from his new position on the ground, a silver gleam in front of his face kept Hoody from fighting back, instead he slowly raised his hands in the ‘I surrender pose’ 

“Just kidding Big Blue, you know me. Always joking around.”

Holding the scalpel inches from Hoody’s right eye, Eyeless tightened the grip of his other hand around Hoody’s neck, and leaned in closer to whisper at him. “You ever joke like that again, it’ll be your last.”

Folding his fingers into an ‘ok’ sign, Hoody rasped out an agreeable sound. Once the hand on his throat let go, Hoody coughed a few times and found that while he felt bruised, he didn’t feel too bad. “I hope all the city noise drives you bonkers,” he muttered.


	7. Eyeless

Eyeless didn’t like it. 

For all intents and purposes, Hoody seemed to genuinely want to be helpful. He was willing to stay with Jeff in the abandoned building in case something happened, he was happy to go out on errands if asked to do so. His snarky comments could be irritating, but they made Jeff smile so that was tolerable. As far as Eyeless was concerned, Hoody was mainly driven by the need to feel needed. 

Even after Eyeless had threatened to blind him, Hoody had still tried to be accommodating.

Masky on the other hand..

Eyeless heard the floorboards creak under Masky’s feet and tracked him through the still mostly-bare rooms to where Jeff was resting. Just far enough away that Eyeless had to concentrate on the words to understand-

“Here, got you some new earbuds. The ones you’re using are crap and I know they’ve been flaking out on you.”

Eyeless was forced to imagine Jeff’s response, being that he still wasn’t talking…

“Don’t worry about it, the cashier at the mini-mart was being an asshole so I just pocketed them. Didn’t cost me a cent or moment of trouble.”

Getting the phones charged had meant Jeff got his music player back, and while normally Eyeless would warn him off draining the battery down so fast, Masky was making a point to take everything to the cafe nearly every night so why not let Jeff enjoy his rock’n’roll? Except..

New earbuds, bags of trail mix with a variety of textures, a pair of sunglasses after Jeff’s old pair snapped in half. All very small, sensible things that were no cause for alarm. Those weren’t what made Eyeless keep an especially close ear on him.

The problem was Masky’s heart. Or rather, his heartbeat. Whenever Masky brought some small trifling gift back or some bit of news he’d picked up around the city, his heartbeat would start to pulse faster. His breathing would quicken. 

Hoody should have been the problem, he was around and doing more things with Jeff when Eyeless needed someone with eyes, yet somehow it was _Masky_ that was falling. 

He really did not understand. 

Give him a clock, give him a broken bone, give him a pair of lungs that stubbornly refused to stop working even as vines of thorns started to thread through them, but emotions? Eyeless took a hard pass. 

_However_ there was another side to this conundrum that might be making it less of a problem, and more of a gift, in that Jeff almost seemed to be thriving under the attention. He was coughing, yes. He was bleeding with every exhale, yes. He _wasn’t_ being choked by growing stems, nor had he had a serious coughing fit that would cause him to vomit up a torrent of petals and blood clots. 

He was, Eyeless tentatively decided, relatively stable. 

Jeff snarked at Hoody’s attempts to play Nanny, and Hoody snarked right back and told him if he didn’t like it he could get up and fight him. The snarking was silent on Jeff’s side of course, mainly making faces and slapping Hoody out of the way to get his point across. 

He’d taken Masky’s thoughtful knick knacks with suspicious eyes at first... but they were so sensible and common that now he’d accept them without a fuss. And more importantly- _he used them_. 

Eyeless ghosted his feet across the floor to stand by the doorway, head cocked to the side as he eavesdropped. Talking about music now… Masky was promising to look up a couple bands for new albums to download. Jeff’s phone was useless for anything but to hold music, but Masky could connect to a wifi if there was an unlocked one to be found. 

One cable later, and Jeff would have new music. 

Easy as that. 

Idle chat. Entirely one-sided since he couldn’t see them, but nothing that important being said.

Even so, Masky flinched when he left the room, head jerking to the side as he caught Eyeless still leaning next to the doorway. Eyes could hear Masky run a hand through his hair, fingers catching on the strap to his mask and making it shift. After fussing a moment to make everything was sitting where it was supposed to, Masky finally asked-

“Can I help you?”

Eyeless held up a finger, and pointed it to the back door that led to the deck. The door was a poorly put together thing, but it was still a door and Eyeless was fairly certain he could speak plainly now. 

He’d be blunt. “You’re in love with Jeff.” 

“. . .shut your goddamn mouth,” Masky glanced at said door. 

“I want to know what you plan to do about it.”

“You need to mind your own fucking business Eyeless.”

“One wrong move and you condemn him to die; slowly and painfully. This isn’t a game.”

“Don’t you think I know that? _I know_ that saying anything right now would only hurt him! He’s pining away over some brainless fucker not even here, and I’m not going to make it worse by telling him anything just so he’ll feel bad about it. I’m not that fucking cruel!”

Door or no door, both of them kept their voices down just in case. Jeff might have put his earbuds in, he might not have. Now was not the time to test it. Hoody had run off with every spare bit of clothing he could get his hands on and was cooling his heels at a nearby laundromat, so it was just Masky and Eyeless to hiss at each other. 

Eyeless could hear Masky’s heart, faster than it’d been when sitting inside, he could tell the man was getting upset. Hands jamming themselves into coat pockets roughly, Masky settled back onto his heels and faced Eyeless squarely. Defensively. Teeth grinding together.

As for Eyeless, he was slightly annoyed. “I’m not saying _not_ to tell him, it might do him some good actually, but you have to be subtle about it. Jeff won’t accept any grand declaration, he’ll think you’re mocking him.”

“Again, _this is none of your goddamn business_.”

“Fine. I’ll wait until you also start coughing up flowers, then I put the two of you together to talk about the awful aftertaste.”

A shoe scuffed against the concrete, a shuffle of cloth, Eyeless was pretty sure Masky was dying to hit him. He was more concerned with the creaking floorboards and softer scuffing. Eyeless leaned onto his right foot and grabbed the door handle, pulling it open to just as Jeff reached for it. 

“You shouldn’t be up.”

He could only imagine the dirty look Jeff sent at him. Eyeless didn’t have to imagine the harsh wheezing that was Jeff’s every breath, or the painful swallow as the Killer braced himself with a hand on either side of the door frame. This close too, Eyeless could hear the soft shifting of hair over his shoulders as Jeff looked at Eyeless, to Masky, and back. 

Eyeless waited.

Coughing a little to clear his throat, and in a voice gone husky from disuse, Jeff finally said- “Toby’s in.. Colorado,” panting between words.

Masky’s head snapped back so hard Eyeless heard his vertebrae crack. Not in a debilitating way, just some air bubbles, but he understood the shock. 

“Jeff..”

The Killer waved a hand at him irritably, bracing himself with his left still gripping the doorframe. “They like.. forests. Big forests. And Toby... wanted to see... Colorado.”

“ _Fuck_ ,” Masky swore viciously. He turned away and stomped to the edge of the concrete decking and kicked at an empty jug, sending it across the yard. Where Toby was, there was the Slender Man because you couldn’t get one without the other. Toby was the easier to track of the two but god _dammit_ Masky hadn’t wanted the information from Jeff. 

Putting aside the swearing Slender-hunter, Eyeless tried to get a gauge for what on earth Jeff was doing. This was one of those times when Eyeless wished he could see the expression Jeff wore, it would have made things a lot easier. 

Because now that he’d dropped that little tidbit on them, Jeff left. Taking a moment to cough plant matter into his sleeve first, but he moved one foot in front of the other in a stubborn march that left Eyeless listening carefully but not trying to help.

**Author's Note:**

> .
> 
> I'm not entirely sure I'm going with this other than a few key points. No Beta in sight, so all roughness and illogical decisions are mine alone. It's pretty much just a shiny toy I like to fiddle with when I'm bored, so don't be surprised if it gets randomly edited and tweaked every so often.


End file.
